I’ve written before that I’ve struggled to find my tribe of women mom friends. Since moving to Atlanta, most of our friends don’t have children. In an effort to make new friends, I’ve tried creating my own meetup group. Out of the 4-5 meetups I’ve hosted, I’ve had exactly zero people show up (womp womp). Despite feeling like a loser, I’m still trying to put myself out there.

I recently heard about an app called Peanut, that helps to connects moms. The advertisement was during a parenting podcast that I really enjoyed, so I thought…why not give it a try? It’s basically tinder dating to find mom friends. You swipe one way if you like the person and swipe the other if you don’t. I’ve been looking at it, and connected with a few moms through the app, but nothing had led to any kind of substantial communication so far. And then, it happened! I had a mom reach out to say hi and we hit it off!

It was great to chat back and forth with her, because it made me feel happy to have someone with similar struggles (i.e. hiding under the crib to look at your iPhone while your darling falls asleep, or dealing with a kiddo meltdown). Our online rapport and banter had been so much fun, that we decided to meet up for a coffee date this weekend.

I was nervous and excited to meet this new potential mom friend. What if our online chemistry didn’t translate in real life? What if we didn’t jive or the conversation was awkward and weird? What if she thinks I’m a total weirdo (and not in a good way)?!? Finding new friends, even platonic ones, comes with all the same kind of worries of dating!

I worried all for naught, because we hit it off immediately. When I found her, she immediately reached out to hug me. I loved this, because I’m a huge hugger too! She reminded me a lot of a good friend from Los Angeles. In some ways, she talked very similarly to my friend that it threw me for a loop at first. We sat down at a table outside and talked for two hours straight. We had such easy conversation and my cheeks hurt from laughing and smiling. I didn’t want to leave, but I also didn’t want to overstay my welcome either. We made plans to meet up again soon, next time bringing our daughters with.

There have been lots of new things lately. New job, new approach to my same old problems, new dynamic in my relationship, new way of trying to view myself. I’m hoping that today is the start of a another new thing. A new friendship with a kindred spirit.

I’ve struggled to make friends since moving to Atlanta in 2013. In LA, I had a close group of girlfriends that were my people. We regularly hung out, explored new things around LA and had each other over for dinner. It was a close group of women that I knew had my back no matter what. I miss that comraderie very much.

I don’t know if it’s been because of my work environments or the area or what but the problem has been that any women friends I’ve gotten to know are either 1) younger than me and don’t have kids yet or 2) they are older than me and their kids are in high school or college (or they don’t have kids). I’ve also seen a lot of what I like to call “Southern Belle” syndrome where everything is just great. So great. Motherhood is to be enjoyed every single second. Their marriage is perfect. I don’t know about you but my life feels really messy. I want someone that can share with me honestly saying “I feel like a hot fucking mess right now” versus telling me how perfect their life is. Those are the kinds of women friendships I want. Honest. Candid. Hysterical. Someone you can laugh with through whatever is going on, good or bad.

And to that end, since I haven’t been able to find my tribe, I’m trying another approach. I created a Meetup group today where I’m looking to connect with other moms. I’ve created the first three meetups and after obsessively checking the Meetup group all day, there is still just 1 member: me. I’m scared I will put myself out there and I won’t have any takers. Ever. That I won’t find my people again. But even if that happens at least I can say I tried right?!?

I’m putting myself out there with good intentions and hope that the universe supports me and helps deliver some new friends.

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